As Long As We're Together
by Ace of Fluidity
Summary: After surviving Tartarus, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have more demons than most people. They absolutely have more than anyone at Goode High School, where Percy and Annabeth are finishing their senior year. When their memories of the pit begin to invade their lives, they struggle a bit more than their peers, too. At least they have each other. (cover image credit to viria!)
1. Prologue: Annabeth

**A/N: Hey! Welcome to "As Long As We're Together". Some things about this story that you should probably know before starting:**

**This story will be about Percabeth recovering from Tartarus, so there will be PTSD involved here. I will post trigger warnings at the beginnings of any chapters where it might be relevant, because from experience I know that having a panic attack because a story author didn't post a trigger warning, even just for a mention of one of my triggers, is never pleasant. If I even have a little suspicion it might be cause for a warning, I will post it.**

**This story also deals with issues of self-harm and depression. I won't go into any details for spoiler reasons, but once again: for chapters where I think a warning might be necessary, I will post one. If I don't put a warning and you think I should, do not hesitate to tell me. I will fix it as soon as I possibly can.**

**As well, expect chapters maybe once or twice a week. It could be literally any point when I have time and I have the next chapter copied onto my computer. I have the next six chapters written down on paper, but not on my computer, and that takes a little bit of time. **

**If you like the story, be sure to tell me in a review! Or don't, it's really up to you. **

**Also, this story does have a fair amount of LGBT+ representation. If you have some sort of issue with that, don't leave hate comments. Don't tell me in some roundabout, jerky way, and don't flame. I will not tolerate hate for this community, and if you're in America I understand First Amendment rights, but I am telling you right now that if you leave a hateful review, it will be removed and reported. You have been warned.**

**On with the story!**

* * *

_**Prologue: Annabeth**_

Annabeth Chase was already beginning to get tired of Ivory Brookewood, her half-sister on the godly side with whom she was living for the school year. There never were a huge number of blatantly extroverted Athena campers, but Annabeth was quickly learning that Ivory was the exception. The woman had so much enthusiasm about basically everything that it was borderline painful. Annabeth had been in the car with her for a grand total of fifteen minutes, and already a headache was building up right behind her eyes.

"So, Annabeth," Ivory started, and Annabeth repressed a groan. "What do your classes look like this year?"

"Well," Annabeth began, sarcasm already leaking into her voice. "A whole lot of I-don't-have-a-clue-because-I-don't-have-the-schedule-yet."

Ivory paused, as though just now realizing the flaw in the question, before shrugging. Ivory was one of those people who seemed to have just a little trouble telling when other people didn't want to have conversations. Annabeth hoped her silence would have sent the message by now, but apparently, it hadn't.

"Well, you should get some rest." Ivory recovered. "First day of school tomorrow!"

"Yeah."

"Why so upset?"

Annabeth was truly clueless as to how Ivory wasn't a child of Aphrodite, but reminded herself that Ivory was a rival even for her when it game to battle strategy.

"Popular kids."

Ivory's expression told Annabeth all she needed to know. Annabeth had had some issues with a group of popular girls at her old school, and was not eager to deal with them again.

"Could be different."

"Probably won't be."

For the rest of the ride, Ivory and Annabeth sat in silence. Annabeth watched as the buildings changed between camp and Ivory's apartment in Manhattan.

The place wasn't anything special – a big room consisting of the living room, kitchen, and dining room, with a hallway going off to the right that Annabeth assumed led to bedrooms and a bathroom. Annabeth dropped her bag by the door, before falling onto the couch. Within seconds, she was asleep.

Demigods always had weird dreams, and Annabeth had come to accept that fact once she found out about it when she was seven. Annabeth was used to the vivid, often disturbing scenes that played out in her sleep. However, she doubted strongly that the visions that had been haunting her lately would ever cease to be completely terrifying.

Annabeth couldn't see. All around her was inky blackness, though it really had little to do with her environment right now. She _had_ to hit the stupid _arai_, and now she was blind. At least Percy was right beside her. She focused almost entirely on his presence, the only good thing in the pit.

Then it was gone.

"Percy?" She called out. She heard his voice, dimly, and tried to find where it was coming from. No matter which way she turned, though, she couldn't find the source of his voice.

"Percy, don't leave me!"

The laughter of the _arai_ filled her senses, and there was nothing except for their chilling, echoing laugher for Annabeth. She was all alone.

Annabeth jerked to a start, her breathing heavy. That damn nightmare again. Since escaping from Tartarus, that had been a favorite of her mind to torture her with. She couldn't help but wonder if, in some twisted way, one of the _arai_ had cursed her to never forget that feeling of abandonment. To always be forced to relive, over and over again, that horrifying moment when Percy was ripped away from her.

Annabeth calmed her breathing, and, realizing she was shaking, managed to still her body. No matter how many times she had that nightmare, she always woke up shaken from it. Annabeth had thought that, eventually, she would just become accustomed to the nightmare. As usual, though, the Fates seemed to have very different ideas.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Annabeth jumped at the voice, before calming down, seeing it was only Ivory.

"Yeah."

"What was that?"

"Just a nightmare." Annabeth saw the look on Ivory's face and quickly added, "nothing particularly important to the current safety of the world."

Thank the gods for that. Annabeth was fairly certain that, while most other demigods at either camp would have jumped on an opportunity to prove themselves by saving the world, she and Percy wouldn't be able to handle another Great Prophecy somehow involving them. Not right now. Not while they were still recovering. Ivory's face fell. Annabeth sighed, rolling her eyes, standing up and stretching.

"I'm hungry, what time is it?" Annabeth asked. Ivory sighed, smiling. Maybe this arrangement wouldn't end up being so bad. Annabeth hoped so, anway.


	2. One: Percy

**Hey!**

**I am so sorry. I meant to update earlier this week, but I was just... Well, you know when you have things you want to do, but then life happens and you're stuck at home sick and stressed out about missing work? No? Guess that's just me, then. Anyway, weird cryptic wording aside, I got really sick this week and just _could not._ I mean, really seriously _could not_ do anything this week until Thursday, and then I had to scramble to do makeup work and so today is the first day during the week I've really had either the mental or physical ability to make myself sit down and type up the chapter. So! Lesson learned, I'm putting more chapters into my computer's document once I upload this, so.**

**Anyone else do Day of Silence today? It was cool. Raising awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues through not talking all school day! Woo!**

**Anyway. Yeah. That's all I've got to say. Enjoy the chapter! Leave me constructive criticism! Or just, like, tell me how your day was, or if you like the story? I don't know. I'm a lonely, anxious bean who just wants human interaction but is too scared to pursue it.**

**Enjoy!**

**~A.J.**

* * *

**_I: Percy_**

Usually, Percy dreaded the first day of school. Now, though, as he sat with his swim team, waiting for the assembly to start, he felt a strange kind of anticipatory excitement. Now, don't get the wrong idea. Percy wasn't even vaguely excited about school itself. Rather, he was excited to spend the school year with Annabeth. Maybe now, the actual school part would be a little less boring.

"Dude, what are you looking for?" Andrew spoke up, tapping Percy on the shoulder. Andrew was this really lanky African-American guy with mischievous brown eyes that reminded Percy of the Hermes kids back at camp. As a result, Percy always made sure he had all his belongings when he left a room Andrew had been in, out of habit. Especially after pencils had started disappearing out of nowhere.

"You've been at this for twenty minutes now, Perce." Layla, the only girl on the team (which annoyed Percy to no end – maybe it was a result of seeing all the capable female campers so often), spoke up. "What's got you so unusually focused?"

Percy turned to Layla and crossed his arms, to which the girl just raised her eyebrows, her brown, wavy hair with its pink, purple, and blue highlights falling around her shoulders. Percy sighed.

"I'm looking for Annabeth."

Percy groaned internally as Andrew's face warped into a curious smirk.

"Stop that," Percy said, which just made the boy's smirk grow. Layla came to his rescue.

"Orion! Lucas! Up here!" Layla shouted. The two boys in question looked up at them. Percy always forgot Orion was his teammate's name, and his initial reaction to hearing it tended to be along the lines of run for cover!

The teen Orion was Greek, too, and endlessly threw Percy for a loop when he would mutter something in Ancient Greek and the kid would just stare at him for a moment or two, since it probably sounded similar to something in modern Greek. Lucas, on the other hand, was about as far from the myths as it was possible to get. He was a steadfast atheist, though that hardly meant anything Percy had learned, and refused to believe anything anyone else said to the contrary.

Orion waved, grinning, before bounding up to join them in the bleachers.

Percy wasn't paying attention to that, though. His eye caught on a flash of blonde and orange, and he grinned. He cupped his hands to his mouth.

"Wise Girl!"

The girl turned, noticed Percy, and ran to him. His grin widened, and he stood up, catching her in a hug as she barreled into him. The daughter of Athena then took the opportunity to turn the close contact into a kiss. The moment was ruined, though, as Percy heard a fake gagging sound behind him. Unable to discern exactly which of his friends was the perpetrator, he just glared at all of them. Annabeth snickered, and Percy relaxed, smiling at her and sitting down. She sat beside him, and leaned into him. Percy looked over, and noticed exactly just how tired she looked.

"Didn't sleep?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Nightmares?"

She nodded. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders before turning to Layla.

"Cover for me?"

"Skipping assembly again, Jackson? Naughty boy," Layla teased, before nodding. "I'll just tell anyone who asks that you got hungry."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Layla."

"Anytime."

Percy stood up and led Annabeth out. She gave him a strange look.

"'Again'?" Annabeth inquired.

"Monsters," Percy answered simply, and Annabeth's face cleared of any confusion. The couple stopped by the lockers some way away from the gymnasium. Percy studied Annabeth's face for a moment, and his brow furrowed at the dark circles he saw under her eyes.

"Tell me, please?" Percy said, concern creeping into his voice. Annabeth was silent for a moment.

"I saw Bob and Damasen."

They both stood in silence for a moment. Neither of them would forgive themselves anytime soon for letting the Titan and the giant sacrifice themselves so that they could escape Tartarus. They were the kindest of their kind – after all, it was the Titans and, then, the giants who had almost gotten the both of them killed, not to mention nearly started the end of the world. Percy especially still felt guilty about leaving Bob. They really only survived because Nico had been kind to Bob after Percy had forgotten about him. Percy wouldn't let himself forget him. Never again.

"Percy, it's not fair! They should have gotten a chance to see the stars again, too. He just wanted…" Annabeth was shaking now, tears running down her face.

"Shh… hey, Wise Girl. Look at me."

Annabeth complied, her thunderstorm-grey eyes shining with tears and shattered by grief.

"There was nothing we could do."

"I could have-"

"Stayed? I never would have forgiven myself for just letting you die like that. Who knows if you would have even gotten twelve minutes before Gaea's monster army ripped you to shreds? Or before Tartarus would have wiped you from existence?"

Annabeth looked down, nodding.

"I…"

"Bob and Damasen made their choice freely, Wise Girl. I still beat myself up over forgetting about Bob."

The two let themselves stand in silence again, before Annabeth leaned into Percy's chest.

"Why us?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, and Percy had to strain to catch the muttered words.

"I have no clue, Wise Girl." Percy responded, just above Annabeth's volume. "But we'll get through it."

Annabeth didn't respond. Percy glanced at the clock. Assembly was almost over.

"Where's your homeroom?"

"Room 205."

"That's the same as mine. We should start walking over, at least. The assembly is basically almost over."

Annabeth nodded. Percy led her though the halls of Goode until they reached the room, where they sat down just outside the door to wait.

"I promise, Wise Girl. We'll find a way to get through this. We're together, right?" Percy wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and she leaned into his side.

"Right."

They sat there in silence until the bell rang.

Percy had a feeling that this year was going to be the hardest year to get through, even as a son of Poseidon.

* * *

**A/N: Forgot this at the top. Now introducing... _drumroll__ please..._ Question of the Day!**

**How this is going to work is basically, at the end of every chapter, I'll put that day's Question of the Day, give my answer, and then if you feel like answering it yourself, go ahead and leave a review with your Question of the Day answer! I'd love to see it! But you don't have to. Anyway!**

**Question of the Day**

_**Have you read/watched/listened to anything with good LGBT representation? If so, what? (not counting Riordanverse novels, because if you're here you probably know about a lot of it!)**_

**My Answer**

**Yes! Lots! One is the novel _Carry On_ by Rainbow Rowell. It's definitely fantasy, but if you're into gay vampires and Harry Potter-esque magic schools, then give it a go! (Some of my friends also recommend the podcast _Welcome to Nightvale_ but I haven't gotten around to listening to that yet. I might just do that now.)**

**Anyway, thanks for reading, I'll let you go now! Bye!**

**~A.J. **


	3. Two: Annabeth

**Yo!**

**So, responses to reviews because there are some things I would like to address in them. Thank you everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited in the last few chapters, it really warms my heart that you all like my writing!**

**Reviews:**

**implayinggod: Those all sound like amazing books, I'll be sure to check them out when I get some time in my hecka busy schedule and mess of a life. School, am I right?**

**Guest 1: Agreed, Love, Simon is a _very _good movie.**

**Guest 2: Thank you for the faith in my ability to take an idea that has been done before and do something unique with it! As for the Seaweed Brain/Wise Girl thing, I can absolutely see what you mean. I was re-reading the chapter and thinking the same thing, so if I get some time to edit, I'll be sure to do it! I've cut down on the nickname a far bit in the next chapters, too, so don't worry. Don't think you're being rude, this is constructive criticism, and as a writer/artist of any kind, I take pride that people feel they can provide that to me! Thank you!**

**Guest 3: I didn't realize that proper grammar was uncommon? But thank you for the paragraph and story props! I'm glad you like it. ^-^**

**Whaddya Think: As I mentioned for Guest 2, I've regulated the nickname in future chapters, but thank you for bringing the issue to my attention! I will be sure to check out the book recs when I have time to do such things!**

**On with the chapter!**

* * *

**II: Annabeth**

Aside from assembly, Annabeth's first day at Goode High School went rather smoothly. Percy's swim team friends were all super nice to Annabeth, and soon, she discovered that she and Layla had a large number of classes together. The other girl was quirky, Annabeth found out rather quickly. Not in a bad way – no, rather quire the opposite. Layla was fun and easy to talk to. The two girls hit it off easily.

Annabeth didn't see Percy for most of the day after the assembly. She was, largely, taking advanced classes that she knew Percy didn't believe he'd be able to keep up in, much less keep up a passing grade. However, she did have P.E. with him and his swim team friends Lucas and Andrew. Aside from that, they had a Greek mythology elective together. Annabeth felt like the two of them had mostly just signed up for the class because it would be a nice breather class. They knew basically anything that could possibly be on the tests. After all, if they didn't, they would almost certainly both be dead at that point.

AP English was fun, even if reading the work was more complicated for her than her peers due to her dyslexia. She quickly discovered, though, that the modern world had accommodations that she had never encountered before. For example, the colored screen the teacher gave her to put over pages of texts that caused the letters to stop trying to figure-skate. It was made even more enjoyable by the girl she was sitting next to. Her name was Myra Edwards, and she was, Annabeth learned, an aspiring author. The girl was a great writer, too. You could tell from the way her eyes would light up as she was writing, the way she could forget about the rest of the world as she wrote, she was passionate about her writing. Annabeth recognized that passion in herself whenever she was designing a building. She had a healthy respect for people who had found their calling and pursued it, even if it wasn't a typical calling for a certain demographic they belonged to.

Annabeth had been disappointed at first when she hadn't gotten the architecture class she had signed up for and instead got drama, but she was starting to think it might not be so bad. For starters, it wasn't a super-hard class. Secondly, the guy who seemed the most into it definitely gave off a child-of-Apollo feeling. He looked it too – his blonde hair was a mess, and his blue eyes sparkled in that way a lot of the Apollo campers' did. As if he might just burst into haiku at any moment. Actually, he had, although Annabeth was pretty sure it was accidental. In any case, he was definitely going to make class interesting. She'd have to ask Percy if he knew him. She found out early on that his name was Cody Simmons.

By far, though, her most exciting class was going to be the "breather" Greek mythology class she shared with Percy. Not just because Percy was in it, or because it was on Greek mythology, no. The couple had walked into the room last, before the teacher did, and took their seats. They were thoroughly surprised to see him walk in with a Celestial Bronze sword over his shoulder, though through the Mist it probably just looked like a yardstick or something. Given the look he had sent Percy, he really didn't seem to expect him and Annabeth to be in the class.

Annabeth could already tell that this was going to be anything but a quiet year. At least three half-bloods in the same school, all of whom were at least aware that their lineage existed. Also, though Annabeth couldn't love anyone more than Percy, but ever since she knew him, he'd been a bona fide monster magnet. This had an annoying tendency to ruin romantic outings.

After school, Annabeth asked Percy about Cody.

"Cody Simmons?" Percy asked. Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, he's in my music class."

"Since when were you in music?"

"Since they put the schedules together."

"You're not good at playing music."

"Piper claims I have a good singing voice."

"Piper also says Clarisse has a good singing voice, and mostly, that was to break up an argument. Your point?"

"So does Will."

Annabeth had nothing to say to that. Percy smirked. Annabeth rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

"So, Cody?" She said, to get them back on track.

"Right. Cody. Um… what about Cody?"

Annabeth sighed. "Weren't you listening, Seaweed Brain?" She noticed he at least had the sense to look sorry. She repeated the question. "Does he seem like he might be like us?"

Percy nodded immediately.

"Probably seven."

"That's what I was thinking."

"I also think he really likes me."

"How so?"

"He's very clingy."

"I'm imagining how you described Nico from before he turned emo, summon-things-with-Happy-Meals kid."

Percy never got to respond, as Cody then joined them.

"Hey, Percy!"

Annabeth almost laughed at the expression Percy sent her, like, _please, help._ She shook her head.

"Hey, Cody," Percy said, turning to the boy.

"Who's this?" Cody asked, looking at Annabeth. She tried not to feel hurt. She _had_ been pretty quiet during drama, seeing as how she didn't want to be there.

"That's Annabeth."

Cody looked at her, and she smiled, waving.

"Hey. Cody, right? I'm in your drama class."

Cody seemed to recognize her now, his eyes widening.

"You're the scary blonde who was sitting in the corner, right?"

Percy sent her an incredulous look. "What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just glared at anyone who got too close for my comfort."

"Okay…"

"I didn't hurt anyone."

Cody seemed to find this interaction highly amusing.

"You better not have, or you're sleeping on the floor."

"I didn't know I was going to your place."

"Mom-"

"Sally's not my mom."

"And I'm sure your mom can tell mine she can't invite you over."

Annabeth just crossed her arms. Percy smirked that annoyingly endearing smirk. Annabeth glanced at Cody, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly. He was looking down, dark bags under his eyes popping out at her for the first time. The way he pulled on and fidgeted with his sleeves.

"I'm sure she would if she could. Hey, Cody, what's up?"

Cody looked surprised. "Um… nothing," he said. "I've gotta go." With that, he left them. Percy and Annabeth shared a look.

"That was weird." Percy said. Annabeth couldn't agree more.

* * *

**Question of the Day**

**_What's your favorite song/band/artist?_  
**

**My**** Answer**

**Panic! At the Disco, and it's a tossup between Emperor's New Clothes and Calendar. (I'm not gonna lie I wrote this chapter listening to P!ATD.)  
**

**Hope you enjoyed! Leave your answer in a review! Until next time!**

**~A.J.**


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